What you get
A reply system on your own WhatsApp number that answers customers in Iraqi Arabic and Kurdish Sorani 24 hours a day, captures the enquiry, scores it, and hands the conversation to a person when a person is needed. It runs on the WhatsApp Business Platform, which is Meta’s official Cloud API, not an unofficial workaround. Meta’s own terms prohibit unofficial clients.
Prices are the same three tiers as everything else we build. Most WhatsApp work lands on Growth, 599,000 IQD (USD 399) to build and 99,000 IQD (USD 66) a month.
Read the next two sections before you plan around this. They change your timeline.
WhatsApp is deferred until Meta verifies your business
We do not start clients on WhatsApp. We start on Instagram DM and Messenger, and the reason is documents: why Instagram DM is usually the starting point is that Meta charges no per message fee there and neither channel asks for your company paperwork before it will let a system reply.
WhatsApp asks. The platform requires Meta Business Verification. You submit legal registration documents through your Meta Business Portfolio and wait for a review that neither you nor we control. Meta publishes no guaranteed turnaround time. We will not give you a completion date, and you should be careful with any vendor who does.
What the review normally wants:
| Requirement | What it means in Iraq | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Legal business name | Must match your registration certificate exactly | Trade name and legal name often differ. Use the legal one. |
| Registration document | Company registration or chamber of commerce paper | Which specific Kurdistan Region and federal documents pass review varies by reviewer. Treat any list, including this one, as unverified until your own submission clears. |
| Business address | Must match the document | Check your typed address against the document line by line before you submit. |
| Phone number | A number not currently active on the WhatsApp consumer app or Business app, or one you agree to remove from it | Migrating a number ends its chat history in the app. Decide this before you start. |
| Public web presence | A website or an active business page | |
| Display name | Reviewed separately from verification | Must relate to the business. Rejections happen, and there is an appeal route inside Meta’s own interface. |
We prepare and submit all of this with you, and it is inside the build fee. What we cannot do is move the reviewer.
We cap how many WhatsApp clients run at once
Verification support, display name appeals and template rejections eat hours that never appear on an invoice. One operator can carry a limited number of those and still answer the phone the same day. When the cap is full, we say so and give you a start month. We do not take a deposit and leave you waiting.
It lives on your Meta Business Portfolio, always
- The WhatsApp Business Account sits inside your portfolio, not ours.
- The number is registered to your business.
- Meta bills your card or your company account directly.
- Templates, message history and customer list belong to you.
- We hold admin access to build and maintain. You can revoke it at any time, and your WhatsApp Business Account stays where it is when you do.
Ask any vendor this before you sign anything. A vendor keeping your WhatsApp number on their own portfolio is keeping your customer list.
Service window versus template messages
This decides your monthly cost, so read it twice.
| Service window | Template message | |
|---|---|---|
| What opens it | The customer messages you first | You start, or restart, the conversation |
| How long it lasts | 24 hours from the customer’s most recent message | Not applicable |
| What can be sent | Any reply, written live by the system | Only wording Meta approved in advance |
| Approval needed | None | Every template is reviewed and can be rejected |
| Meta fee | Meta’s published pricing lists service messages inside the window as not charged | Charged per message at Meta’s published rate |
| Typical use | Answering questions, quoting, booking | Appointment reminders, order updates, reviving a cold enquiry |
Two consequences follow.
First, nearly everything an inbound reply system does happens inside the free window, because the customer wrote to you first. That is the normal case, not the exception.
Second, anything sent to someone who has been quiet for more than 24 hours is a paid template, and it must be written and approved before the day you need it. A clinic’s appointment reminders get drafted and approved during the build, not on the morning of the clinic.
According to Meta’s published WhatsApp Business Platform pricing documentation, billing moved from a per conversation model to a per message model on 1 July 2025. Rates differ by country and by message category and Meta revises them. We do not print a number here because it would be stale by the time you read it. We show you Meta’s own published rate for Iraq on the day you sign, from Meta’s page, so you can check it yourself.
Who pays for what
| Item | Paid to | Paid by |
|---|---|---|
| Build fee, 299,000 IQD (USD 199) to 799,000 IQD (USD 533) | RABT Labs | You, once |
| Monthly fee, 49,000 IQD (USD 33) to 149,000 IQD (USD 99) | RABT Labs | You, monthly |
| Template message fees | Meta | You, billed directly by Meta. We take no cut and add no markup. |
| Service window messages | Meta lists these as not charged | Nobody |
| Phone line and number | Your telecom provider | You |
If a vendor quotes you a single all-in price per message, ask them what Meta’s own published rate is. If they cannot tell you, they are marking it up.
The disclosure rule
Every conversation opens by telling the customer they are speaking with an AI assistant. This is mandatory and non-removable. Clients ask us to take it out. The answer is no, in every tier, for every client, without exception. For clinics and pharmacies, a qualified human reviews clinical content before it reaches a patient. That is a safety measure and we sell it as one.
What it does once it is live
It answers price and availability questions from your own price list and stock, not from general knowledge. It books against your real calendar. It reads voice notes as well as typed messages. It scores the enquiry and escalates to a named person when the customer asks for one, or when the question is outside what it should answer. It sends approved follow-up templates to people who went quiet.
There is a worked example of a WhatsApp booking flow in the showcase, and the dialect and Kurdish work behind it is the language layer underneath.
Prices
| Tier | Build | Monthly | Build time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | 299,000 IQD (USD 199) | 49,000 IQD (USD 33) | 3 to 5 days |
| Growth | 599,000 IQD (USD 399) | 99,000 IQD (USD 66) | 7 to 10 days |
| Pro | 799,000 IQD (USD 533) | 149,000 IQD (USD 99) | 10 to 15 days |
Build time starts the day verification clears, not the day you pay. See the full rate card.